Patent 4997020 is for a device where a metal band of several sections would be tightened around a truck tire to seat the bead. It says putting a strap around the tire was an established method, but this would result in asymmetrical pressure, due in part to friction between the strap and the rubber.
1473 could reduce friction in tightening a strap. The hooks could also be a means of compensating for asymmetrical pressure by exerting pull between hooks across the circle.
Looking at the stuff in the back of the truck, it looks like this is a service vehicle for diesel tractor-trailers. Maybe this is some sort of fan shroud for a big diesel engine? And the things that look like handles are just framing to guide hoses, etc?
This is a tough one. Can anyone analyze all the other stuff in the back of the service vehicle for clues?
--riverman
I dunno...the patent device seems to be made of a series (at least 3) sections that can overlap, so tighening the device reduces the circumference. This thing seems pretty solid.
Some observations: the 'handles' are directly opposite that D-shaped stain on the opposite side. It might be the bottom, with the two handles on top at 10:00 and 2:00.
The truck seems to be a welder's truck....does this have anything to do with welding? If not, could it be something he is taking back to be repaired?
Around the rim of the ring are 7 'rods' that extend beyond the ring. Are the ends of these rods bent outward, or are there little 'knobs' at the top? And between each rod are 5 small angled things, that look like they could be used to secure a flat plate on to the ring.
Hmm....I love a mystery, but less so when I know it might never be answered.
--riverman
The thing that's bugging me is that I feel like I've seen one of those damn things somewhere and I have no idea where it was.
Geez, that looks an awful lot like one of those things that waitresses clip their orders to which the cook then spins around to see each one in turn............ Ticket rail?
Pete
It's not that patented device, but the patent describes the obstacles to seating a bead by squeezing the circumference.
I wonder how many there are. I now think the handles and not the hooks keep a strap from sliding off the tire. The strap would be threaded under the handles. Using metal band between the strap and the tire overcomes one of the obstacles mentioned in the patent: friction.
Would the tire be his spare? Isn't a spare normally carried somewhere other than the middle of the cargo space?
The metal band would allow a strap to slide fairly freely as it squeezed the circumference. According to the patent, there are other factors that make a squeeze asymmetrical. Suppose you tighten the strap and see that the bead is not sliding into place at some spots. What now?
Imagine you reach for a sort of load binder with a few links of chain on each end. If you hook the chains to two of those hooked rods and pull the lever, that should deform the circumference. I think that could be used to manipulate the bead into place.
I think what look like "small angled things" are holes, allowing the mechanic to mount as many hooked rods as he wants at the spacing he chooses.
It does slightly resemble a ticket holder, but it's twice as big, has handles, and doesn't have clips as seen here:
The rest of the answers for this week have been posted:
Rob
Sounds like a good possibility, but I'm not yet ready to pronounce this one as solved. I'm thinking that in the next couple weeks someone will recognize it and provide a definitive answer.
Rob
1471 is a leather working tool that is used to cut pieces off to shape what ever is being made. 1474 is a boot jack. You place one toe of the handle and the heal of the other book in the U shaped opening. Lift on the heal and slip you foot out of the boot. Reverse for the other boot.
Dave Nagel
Hmm ... no click to make it bigger, but I saved it and cropped in as much as I can given the jpeg artifacts. (Not sure how much better the raw image from the camera would have been -- this one has been processed by a Microsoft program based on the exif data.
anyway -- it looks to me as though at least some of the holes around the ring have studs in them facing in towards the center, which makes it's use as a tire bead setter less likely.
I see two oxygen tanks lying down, instead of locked upright as they should be. A tank of some fuel gas (I don't think that it is acetylene, so perhaps propane or natural gas) at the right front corner. Acetylene would have to be strapped upright to make it usable without a few hours of upright resting after being turned upright from lying down.
The rods with the hooks on the ends lok as though they might be used to hook the blow-molded plastic sign covers in place if it is truly a ring for a sign.
Of course -- it could be totally unrelated to anything else in the truck -- having simply been scavenged from somewhere as a source of metal. :-)
Enjoy, DoN.
Exactly! Hmmm....
--riverman
I wonder what they are for. Some sections have only holes. I think they are to fasten sections of the band together or to add more hooked rods.
The circumference of a tire doesn't seem to compress. I think that's why it takes so much tension to seat a bead by pulling a rope around the tread. Friction is a problem between a tire and a strap that stretches under tension. It might not be an issue between a tire and metal band that wasn't under tension and didn't stretch.
If the band can flex, pressure under a strap at the center would not mean pressure at the edges where the screws are. The hooked rods would transfer pressure across the tread to the shoulders. I suppose each hooked rod could be pulled separately by a chain and a pry bar at the hub hole of the rim.
A neighbor who has driven trucks for 30 years pulled in tonight. I described the mystery ring and asked if it might be to seat the bead of a truck tire. He said bands like that are used, and it's much safer than squirting ether into the casing, igniting it from a few yards away, and watching the tire fly into the air.
Having him recognize the photo would mean more than his response to a description, but he was about to go to bed. I put a copy of the photo on his steering wheel in case he leaves before I see him.
The green tanks are painted for medical oxygen. One appears to have no cover for the valve. Maybe it's empty, and maybe the refiller is good at detecting damaged valves.
Wholly orange tanks are for refrigerant. It sounds to me like a self-employed repairman. Truckers need roadside repairs, but I think gas welding with a portable cart would be plenty. Long lines for two kinds of welding make me think of farm equipment. It often needs welding, and you may not be able to get a truck or cart within 30 feet.
Uh-oh, I don't know that the truck has any electric welding equipment. I jumped to the conclusion that the blue box contained a generator and electric welder. If that's wrong, it seems there are three pairs of gas lines visible.
On the right hand side of that object at the front is what looks to me like an exhaust pipe . I'd bet even money it's a welding machine , a big one too !
Wild guess here - Could it have anything to do with pipeline work? I see a lot of trucks like this in the East Texas area, several right here in the RV park we stay in, and these guys are doing gas/oil pipeliune construction. Still don't know what that big ring is for, but just thought I might throw in an alternative employment for the vehicle.
I think it's a belt rack out of a clothing store
I showed my grayscale copy of the photo to the trucker. He said yes, the ring is for seating tire beads and the hooks are to be pulled by a lever in the hub. He said tools like this were developed for bias-ply tires. He said the ring he saw was squeezed shut with screws pulling the ends together, but sometimes straps were used to seat beads.
His eyes lit up as he talked about what he recognized. He says it's a
2-ton service truck for farm equipment. Seeing only grays, he could identify one item after another. The box is a welder. The lines on the left are for acetylene welding. The tank on the right is refrigerant. Regardless of color, the tanks under the ladder are for acetylene welding. The reeled lines show there's an air compressor aboard.The tank behind the ammunition box caught his eye because he didn't recognize it at first. Then he remembered it was for compressed air. It was made to release a burst of air when dropped. I didn't have time to ask why.
(I think he was mistaken about the lines hanging to the left of the welder. There is a dual acetylene line with the tanks. They are portable and wouldn't need long lines. I think the lines by the welder are for electric welding.)
The welder in the front is sometimes called a pipeliner.
John
Well, if you can find some links to a tire beading ring that looks like the one on my site, I'd be happy to take a look, but the links below contain what I believe is the definitive answer for this metal band.
I posted a link to my site on a welding newsgroup, where eventually someone posted this link, which says that it's a bevel band:
Someone else on the welding newsgroup provided some further info on the beveling band:
"It's a pipe beveler band for a large pipe, and can be used to mount an automated bug welder. Looks like about a 36". The traveling carriage portion is held to the band by four little wheels with grooves in it. The band is held off the pipe with little round feet. It is clamped around a pipe, and then there is a hand cranked carriage that holds the cutting torch positioned to the right angle. When used as a bug band, the traveling portion is motorized. It usually holds a FCAW torch head, and has a plate about 1 square foot that the welder looks through. There are six control knobs to regulate speed and angle, as it changes with every pass. We used these to weld 36" caisson 1.5" wall thickness with the caisson in the vertical position, the weld in the horizontal 2g position. They are essential in getting a precision cut on two BIG pieces of pipe so they line up, and even though they work pretty good, and you can have a good operator, there's a lot of work, not to mention skill, to bevel two pieces of pipe, get a decent root, and get it all right on that big a piece of pipe. But hey, if you blow it, you just start over. It would take the better part of a day to bevel two ends, dress them, weld them out, and x ray them.
Last thought, kind of a spendy piece of precision equipment to be tossed in a truck like that."
Still seems to me that the rods would get in the way of an automated welder, but maybe not if the welder was made to be used with this particular type of band.
Rob
The uprighting tool was used to centre punch the location of pivot holes, mainly in marine chronometers. They are horological tools, but have other uses, mainly in instrument making. My Boley Standard watchmakers lathe is much newer, but has many hobby uses, and I still make the odd watch part with it!
Steve R. ----For many years a repairer of antique watches and clocks.
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